I used to love S&W, owned many 4 and 5 screw revolvers, 3rd generation 40's and 9's as well as a couple customs. As of late I will not buy another,the last 2 semi's I bought were garbage. I bought a NIB S&W SW99 in 45acp, took it home and shot about 150 rounds. Shot well but when I took it apart to clean it I found metal shavings ( I had cleaned and lubed it before firing ) I saw the recoil spring was 20% gone, flat spotted from barrel contact.
I brought it to the gunshop and he asked me what I preferred, money back or send it back, I had then send it back. I picked it back up at the shop unopened so I had the manager ( a good friend ) open it, no note nothing. He took it apart and all we saw was a new recoil spring. I took it home and shot 100 rounds, took it apart and full of metal and the recoil spring is flat spotted again. Brought it back and got a refund. All I can think is when Walther made the P99 it never came in 45acp, when S&W started making the uppers they made it in 45acp. I have to think perhaps there isn't enough room in the slide for the larger bore or the recoil spring is too large.
I bought a M&P 9mm full size, got it home, cleaned and lubed it and went out back to my range. 2 out of 5 and sometimes 3 in a row were FTE's. After well over 50 rounds of varios ammo I gave up. I shipped it back to S&W, they polished the chamber (full of tool marks ) and replaced the extractor. I got the gun back and fired about 500 rounds of various ammo and the gun would not group, some 25 yard benchrest groups were a foot for 5 shots.
I took the gun back in and examined it, the bore has massive toll marks, sent it back to S&W again. I got it back with a new barrel, the gun was now reliable but found after about 200+ rounds of various ammo the accuracy was marginal ( average 5-6 inch groups ) compared to my other guns.I started reading posts on Smith-Wessonforum and M&P forum and find that many are having the FTE's and other problems as well as 2 police dept's removing M&P series from their approved list, I ended up trading it for a XD 9 and never looked back. This M&P wiped out my supply of 9mm ammo
I have owned 6 Taurus guns, 4 semi's and 2 revolvers and never had a functional problem, still own some. I do note that some people have had problems with Taurus and their customer service leave's much to be desired. At one time I was a S&W junkie, I am very sad to see these issues at S&W, its like your favorite son going bad.
